Monday, September 14, 2015

"We cheer so you don't have to" - By Stephanie Coffin

Cheering: A person who leads spectators in traditional or
formal cheering, especially at a pep rally or athletic event.

Linda Parks, who is new to the Windham Parks and
Recreations team, is helping to develop a cheering program that involves kids
in sports at an earlier age. There are two levels - a kindergarten through
fifth grade and a sixth through eighth grade. Windham varsity coach Jamie
Gaudreau and team members are volunteering their time to help with these
instructional courses. This is a 6-week program and will be held at the auxiliary
gym at Windham High School on Thursdays and Saturdays. You can sign up in
person or online.

Cheerleading is an organized activity which involves leading
a series of cheers to rally the crowd at sports events. On high levels,
cheerleading is itself a sport, with participants performing dances and complex
tricks which are extremely physically demanding. Cheerleaders can often be seen
on the sidelines at professional sports games, and organized cheerleading also
exists in schools, from elementary school all the way through college. Some
people are dismissive of cheerleading as a sport, but cheerleaders at the top
level of competition are very serious athletes, comparable to top-tier athletes
in other sports.

Cheerleading began in the 1880s, when crowds at
university sports games started shouting out cheers to support their teams. In
1898, the first documented cheerleading event occurred, when Johnny Campbell
led a cheer at a University of Minnesota game. Initially, cheer squads were all
male. Women did not join the sport until 1923. Many collegiate teams still have
large numbers of male members which have included several well-known American
Presidents during their time in college.

Many high schools have cheerleading squads which travel
to games along with their sports teams, and some middle schools do as well.
Middle school squads are much less physically demanding, and are usually
designed to be more fun, so that cheerleaders become interested in pursuing the
sport as they grow older. Some elementary schools also have very basic
cheerleading squads, in the spirit of peewee football and other diminutive
versions of popular sports.

People can see cheerleaders in action at the Windham
varsity high school football game on Friday nights. This group will perform on
October 16th at half time.